Importing and working with high frame rate footage

[southwestform]

1. I need to import footage that will be shot at either 120 or 960fps; can I just put this footage into an existing 24fps Sequence in PP?

2. If not, how do you combine a 24fps sequence with some clips that are shot at a high frame rate like this with the goal of slowing these clips down?

Thanks in advance.

[Meg The Dog]

If the clips are being natively recorded (not being recorded as over cranked files) and have those high frame rates, you can Interpret the clips to play (in slow motion) at 23.98 by using the Clip Modify command:

Modifying clip properties with Interpret Footage in Premiere Pro

MtD

[southwestform]

The camera has the options to shoot at these different frame rates built into the camera. I'm not sure what you mean by "not being recorded as over cranked files". Aren't all HFR videos considered over cranked?

Thanks

[Meg The Dog]

Some cameras (Canon/Panasonic/Sony/others) have the option of either shooting at a high frame rate and recording a file at that specified  (matching) frame rate - or over cranking where the image is made at the high frame rate but the file is recorded in camera on the camera media at a standard frame rate (example: shooting frame rate 120fps, but the file that is made is 29.97).

The latter produces files that are slow motion without modification.

MtD

[excited_Genie16B8]

Think of Capturing and Recording as two separate processes.  Capturing is the process of reading frames off the sensor.  Recording is the process of saving those frames to a file.

If you capture and record at 120 fps, Premiere Pro will see the file as 120 fps.

If you capture at 120 and record at 24, then Premiere Pro will see the file as 24 fps.

Whether you can capture and record at different frame rates depends on the camera.  Some allow it, others don't.  Consult your camera's manual on this.

[R Neil Haugen]

Very nicely put, Jim. One of the clearest, most precise, and informative explanations of this I've seen. And it's something that confuses so many people.

Neil

[southwestform]

1. For clarification, “If you capture and record at 120 fps, Premiere Pro will see the file as 120 fps.”

Is this considered the better quality HFR footage?

“If you capture at 120 and record at 24, then Premiere Pro will see the file as 24 fps.”

Is this what is being referred to as "over cranked footage?"

2. What if anything in Premiere do you need to do differently with the footage that is captured at a HFR and recorded at a standard fps?

Thanks!

[Meg The Dog · Accepted solution]

southwestform  wrote

1. For clarification, “If you capture and record at 120 fps, Premiere Pro will see the file as 120 fps.”

Is this considered the better quality HFR footage?

“If you capture at 120 and record at 24, then Premiere Pro will see the file as 24 fps.”

Is this what is being referred to as "over cranked footage?"

The quality is identical. You get the exact same number of frames either way. If you shoot at 120fps for one minute, and you record at 120 fps, you will get a one minute long file.

If you shoot at 120 fps and record at 24 fps, you will get a 5 minute long file, because the 24fps rate is 5X slower than 120 fps. The quality of any individual frame is the same.

Over cranking is doing the latter - shooting at a high frame rate and recording at the lower. It comes from early film making where the projector always projected at 24fps - if the camera operator shot at a higher frame rate than the projector, he over cranked (and got slow motion when projected) - and if he shot at a frame rate lower than the projector, he under cranked  (and got fast motion).

southwestform  wrote

2. What if anything in Premiere do you need to do differently with the footage that is captured at a HFR and recorded at a standard fps?

Nothing. It will play (in the case of shooting 120 fps and creating the file at 24 fps) 1/5th real time. If you want the action to appear in real time, you speed the clip up in Premiere 5X.

MtD

[excited_Genie16B8]

Both methods will produce exactly the same results in the end.  The difference is whether or not Premiere Pro reads the footage as slow motion by default.

Any time you're Capturing at a higher frame rate than will be used for editing, it's called "overcranking".  If you shoot at 60 and edit at 30, it's overcranking.  If you shoot at 60 and edit at 60, it's not.